A care worker has told how she came back from Christmas shopping to find her new car had been ‘keyed’ along the front, back and both sides.

Kelly McLean, from Stranocum, Co Antrim, parked her Honda Civic at the Long Commons car park in Coleraine on Tuesday afternoon.

But when she came back from buying gifts for her loved ones she found a deep gash in the paintwork stretching from the bonnet to the doors and the boot.

The 19-year-old says who ever did it “really put their back into it”.

Kely McLean

She added: “The scratch was right down to the metal. Who ever did this would really have had to have gone at it really hard. I’m just gutted. I’ve only got the car a month and it was in mint condition, the paintwork was gorgeous. I haven’t got it up to see what it’s going to cost yet, but I’m sure it’ll be a fortune.

“There were other cars around me, but my car was the only one touched.”

Kelly says builders who were working nearby told her they heard the sound of the scratching and saw someone in a tracksuit top with the hood up jump out of the passenger side of a dark coloured car before causing the damage to her Honda.

She says a PSNI patrol in the area a short time later took statements from her and the builders.

Asked why she thinks her car was targeted, she said she has “no grievances with anyone” and fears the attack may have been a case of mistaken identity.

She says the builders told her the person who did the damage arrived only a few minutes after she parked her car.